Photo: Maria Lax/Focus Features
Ronan Day-Lewis’s debut film, Anemoneis a Dark, Emotional Journey Into Generational Trauma. IT ALSO JUST HAPPENS TO STAR HIS FATHER, DANIEL DAY-Lewis, in the venerated actor’s first film in eight years. HOW DID DAY-Lewis The Younger Go From Scampering Around Sets to Running a Production of His Own? Here are some key moviegoing moments from the director’s early days.
First Movie You Saw in Theaters?
The First Movie i Remember Seeing Was Finding nemobut i’m SUE SAW Something Else before that – was eather that or The Incredibles. I rewatched Finding nemo Recently and Is it a masterpiece, honestly.
First Movie you bought?
Eothher the first or the second Harry Potter movie.
First Favorite Movie?
I watched Whale Rider be i was around 5, and that made a big impression on me. I became obsessed with it for a while. There was a mythic aspect to it, and i was fascinated by the ocean. I HAD WATCHED A LOT OF Blue Planet. And the performance by the main actress (keisa castle-hughes) is amazing. There’s a sense of Mystery Throughout. Andn, of Course, My Neighbor Totoro was another Big One.
First Favorite Actor?
Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter.
First Movie Crush?
The Main Character From Spirited Away – Chihiro.
First Movie that made you Cry?
I do’t know if it made me Cry, exactly, but i saw (Ken Loach’s) This when i was Pretty Young, and it just devastated me. It was the first time Remember Being So Sad Watching a Movie.
First Favorite Director?
Paul Thomas Anderson. Thin PUNCH-DRUNG LOVE was his first movie of saw, and then i went backward in His Filmography from.
First Movie Set You Visited?
My parents made this film, The Ballad of Jack and RoseWHICH they Shot on Prince Edward Island off the coast of Canada. I think of was about 5 at the time. I Remember Seeing that they made this set that was a house built into a hill with the grass grown over the roof. It was like a crazy mirage.
First Book About Movies You Read?
I read this book about diy filmmake – i don’t remember what it was called – but it has all they have tips on how to how to, like, put your camera on a skateboard or get a dolly shot and stuff like.
First film score that made an impression on you?
The score for Pan’s Labyrinth is so haunting. That and Rosemary’s baby were huge for me – and they’re simillar scores in a way. I WONDER IF THEY WERE THINING ABOUT Rosemary’s baby when they were figling out the lulraby in Pan’s Labyrinth.
First Memorable Needle Drop?
“Be my baby” in Mean Streets is a Pretty epic one.
First shot from a movie that stack with you?
This isn’t a particularly early memory, but a shot that amazed with – and that we kind of ripped off in Anemone – Is in Andrei Tarkovsky’s The MirrorWhere the Wind Blows Through the Field of Grass in the Clearing. I was just floored by the depth of it.
First Movie of Your Dad’s That You Saw?
IT WAS EATHER My left foot or The Last of the Mohicans. The first time of saw Him Oncecreen, The Strangest Part Was Seeing Him Afterward, JUST AROUND. I’d gotten so used to see Him in Character, and then Coming Outside of that, he’s just my dad. Its Very Surreal. There’s this weird cognitive disbelief where it is all of it, and i kind of have to forget this is someone i know so well.
FIRST TIME YOU BECAME AWARE OF YOUR DAD’S Legacy?
It was through kids at school, when i was around 7. Their palents would show The Last of the Mohicansand thatn they will start talking to me. That’s though i was on movie sets before, i didn’t really have any idea what was going on.
The first video camera you bought?
It was like a little Sony Camera that has had a strap for your Hand and a Little monitor that would flip out. I was probably 13 or 14. I was in a phase where i was just watching almost exclusively horror films, and there was this movie on netflix calmed Zombie Girl About a girl that makes a feature-length zombie film in her small town. I was really inspired by it. Before that, we’d made some other movies on my friend Dad’s Camera.
First Time You Thought About Directing A Feature-Length Film?
It was around that sun Time – eighth grade or so. I had a movie Teacher Named Michael Domenica, and he was JUST teaching films but he’d gIive US Assignments where we’d shorts. I start to work my first feature script when i was 15, and everything took off from there.
First Scane you wrote for Anemone?
The One Where We Discover Ray (Editor’s Note: Played by Daniel Day-Lewis) in the Woods. The Camera is Gliding Through the Trees, and that we find Him hacking at the roots in the clearing.
LAST MOVIE YOU BOUGHT?
I can’t remember off-hand, but it was almost certificate something ben forandesman-the dp on Anemone – and i were using for visual reference. We lookhed at Autumn sonata. We actually look at the third Harry Potter movie. We lookhed at Knife in the WaterBecuse a lot of it taxes place in this really confused Environment with a couple of People. We were Studying How to Frame People Claustrophobically With A Tight Space.
Last Notable Film Discovery?
I hadn’t seen Morvern Callar Unil recently, and so that got with obsessed with lynne ramsay and her films.
LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN THEATERS?
I have definitely seen something SINCE THEN, but I KEEP THINKING ABOUT Brutist. I’ve been so tunnel vision finishing up Anemone that i haven’t seen enough movies in theaters recently, but got to see that on the Big Screen, which was a great experience.
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